Favorite Things

It’s currently rainy here. Rainy day is my favorite. There’s a lot of scene to watch. Maybe it’s the sound of the raindrops that made me more aware on everything around? I don’t know (I have a feeling there must be some research about this somewhere?)

So’ since it’s my favorite weather of the day (And I need to post something on this neglected blog :)) And I just heard this song (Glee version of My Favorite Things from the sound of music). So, let’s talk about favorites!

These are some of my favorites:

Soto Banjar

source: yellowcornerhouse.blogspot.com

I’m craving for this right now, so excuse moi 🙂 It’s hard to find restaurant in Jakarta who had this on their menu, even if there is, it’s one/two-hour drive from my house.

Soto Banjar, is a traditional dish from my home town. There’s a tons kind of Soto in Indonesia. Every places has it’s own niche. Soto Kudus, Soto Betawi, Soto Makassar, Soto Padang, Soto Madura, just to name a few (or many? :D).

Mostly people eat it with rice, but in my hometown Banjarmasin, we use ketupat. Well Ketupat also made from rice but it cooked in coconut or janur leaves, so it has this particular form, and off course different taste with plain cooked rice. Soto Banjar has more ‘white’ soup than other because sometimes they add milk. And they also have different spices from other soto. I know they use nutmeg, cinnamon, and some others I don’t even collects on my kitchen ^_^

I wish I know how to cooked this dish, but there’s a lot of things to do to make one complete dish. (Do you know they cooked Ketupat for like 4 hour at least?? I could write 6 pages in an hour! Drawing fire engines for my kid another hour. And read for the rest two hours. So, no thanks!) I think I’ll just save this crave for my next visit to my hometown. 🙂

Bell

Photo: by me, farah ^_^

I have a thing with bell, especially the small one. I don’t know why, maybe because I don’t live hearing bell sound every day. And around this Christmas time, there’s a lot images of bell everywhere on print advertising, videos. It’s awesome. I don’t celebrate Christmas though, but I love holiday spirit, everyone seems happy and fun and bright. So’ Happy Holiday! 🙂

Drink: Tea or coffee?

source: reetsweet.blogspot.com

It’s hard to choose because sometimes I’m a tea person and another day I’m a coffee person. But for the sake of I-should-reduce-sugar-intake I have to choose tea, because I always have my tea plain. No sugar. No milk. No ice. Just hot plain tea. I’m not yet able to have coffee without sugar, I love it bitter, but I at least add one tea-spoon of sugar on my coffee, and sometimes I add whipped cream too (like most of the time :D) So tea always a better choice for me ^_^ My favorite tea flavor is Jasmine tea (like many Indonesian does ^_^ I’ve written about it here)

Moving is hectic, yeah but living in a new place force you to learn so many new things. And I love learning new things especially cultures. Since i’m a writer I need to keep my character kitchen fresh with new ingredients. You can learn new things by reading books or watching movies, but there’s nothing better than experiencing new cultures… (That’s why I envy my friend Shita Hapsari right now ^_^ She just moved to Texas this year)

My dream place to live… is New York City. Thanks to:

1. Home Alone Lost inNew York that I watched when I was on elementary or mid school, not sure. But obviously Mac Culkin was my life when I was in elementary school 🙂

2.The latest National Geographic on 7 Billion highlight that said New York City is the most influential city of the world.

3. Saman (a novel) by Ayu Utami. It’s opening scene takes place in central Park, and it’s my favorite novel opening, like ever. (I’m just dreaming to be able to make such a brilliant paragraph)

4. Newsies movie. I heard there will be Newsies musical on broadway coming up. I have never ever wants to be able to move places in a blink like now. Or next May? ^_^ Phew dreaming is fun…

5. Ew.. while i’m writing this my 5 year old son sing I’m a king of New York (from Newsies ) … I haven’t play that song for a while… ( Is this a sign from you God??? )

Okay 5 favorites is enough, I don’t like writing blog post too long, because I don’t like reading long blog post either…

Last Note: For anyone who’ve been following my writing progress ^_^

My last post is about writing grieve, I guess I went well with it. I was slow, but I think I’m good. I was having trouble to get into the emotion of the character, but when you start playing with the word casket, corpse, all the feelings start flow in you. The one you need and the one you don’t, i mean those feeling that came up when you start googling about cargo service for corpse and found pictures you don’t want to see. It freaked me out for a while. But I’m good now 🙂 Thanks to other prettier word like roses and jasmine ^_^

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3 thoughts on “Favorite Things”

You know, Fa, I’ve been inspired by this song since I was a kid–first time watched The Sound of Music–and been thinking to write this kinda post since I don’t know when. But I’ve been putting it up while gathering all the “things”. Eventually forgot about it, and now you beat me to it! Ah, well, I’m such a late-warmer, huhu.